Daniel Ricciardo says he hit it off well with McLaren during his exploratory talks with management last summer, but he ultimately dismissed the team’s offer for 2019 because of its insufficient potential for success.
Ricciardo spent the better part of the first half of last year’s season pondering his future and weighing his options which included staying at Red Bull, or contemplating a move to either Renault or McLaren.
Speaking to RACER’s Chris Medland, the Aussie opened up about his negotiations with the Woking-based outfit, admitting to taking a liking to McLaren’s discourse and friendly atmosphere.
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“McLaren, as a group – I had a couple of meetings with them – and I thought they were really cool people,” he said.
“Definitely as personnel I like them a lot. Not that I don’t like Red Bull or anyone else, but I had a really positive vibe with them.
“But obviously, they’ll admit it, they’re just not there yet, and it just seemed probably a bit too optimistic to go there at that point. So that kind of eliminated them.
“Then Renault we were kind of talking to a bit, and eventually it just kind of clicked for me and I was like ‘Alright, so it’s a works team, progress they’ve made is good, it’s two years and a solid deal’.”
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